Mark Morgan Ford is a lifelong practitioner of writing, teaching, entrepreneurship, martial arts and philanthropy.
He has been writing and publishing since 1962 when, at age 12, he sold an underground booklet titled Excuses for the Amateur to his fifth-grade peers. Since then, he has written more than two dozen books on business, entrepreneurship and wealth building (several of which were New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-sellers), as well as half a dozen books on rhetoric and three books of poetry. He has also written and produced four feature-length movies.
From 2000 to 2010, he posted more than 3,000 essays on his Early to Rise blog, which, at one time, had a circulation of nearly a million readers. From 2010 to 2015, he retired from all but one of his business concerns and created an educational curriculum on wealth building. He donated the curriculum – which consisted of thousands of pages of advice and instruction – to the Wealth Science Institute, a non-profit organization whose goal is to encourage industry, entrepreneurship and prudent financial management for the “not yet wealthy.”
As an entrepreneur, he has been involved in dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including one whose revenues exceeded $100 million and another that broke the billion-dollar mark. His current business interests include the Agora companies (a large international publishing group), Ford Fine Art (a broker of Latin American and contemporary fine art in Miami, Nicaragua and Delray Beach), AWAI (a company that teaches writing and graphic arts), Lion’s Kill (a movie production business) and Palimi (a business consulting company).
As a real estate investor, he has been involved in more than a hundred projects and developments, from single-family homes to apartment buildings, office buildings and resort communities. Travel & Leisure magazine recently voted the hotel facility in one of these resort communities – Rancho Santana on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua – “one of the 100 best in the world.”
A student of martial arts since 1998, Ford has won three Naga championships. He received his black belt from Marcel Ferreira in 2015.
His charitable activities include FunLimon, a community development facility across the street from Rancho Santana that provides a range of services, including an athletic program, a microlending program, a trade school and a literacy school.
He has attempted to retire four times in his career, never successfully. His current goal is to give away 90% of his wealth in the next decade.
Articles by Mark
When You’re in a Risky Investment, Take the Short Money November 7, 2018 - Combine pot shots and long shots and you have a sure shot to disaster.
The Fastest Way to Grow Rich (and Not Risk Everything Else) October 12, 2018 - Making “getting rich” financially my supreme and overriding goal was ruthlessly effective, but there are other ways of being rich.
A Monthly Budget That Will Help You Get Rich October 3, 2018 - Mental calculations leave you no money to save and invest, and no chance to increase your wealth. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Smelling the Roses September 26, 2018 - You need money - lots of money - to own the symbols of wealth. But to get the feeling of wealth, you don’t need to spend much at all...
How Every Decision You Make Can Make You Richer – or Poorer September 21, 2018 - By seeing every situation as a wealth-building opportunity, you can take the actions that will gradually make you very rich.
Dividends: Not Life’s Greatest Joy (but Great for a Worry-Free Retirement) September 5, 2018 - The smart move is to invest in big, proven companies that have nearly zero chance of going out of business and a long history of providing dividend income to their shareholders.
How a $10 Bill Made Me Richer Than All My Friends August 29, 2018 - I made this wealth-building commandment No. 1: Get a little bit richer every day.
Life After 60 July 25, 2018 - When you hit 60, you’re at the crest of life. You can see both ways - backward to your mistakes and forward to know that you’ll make most of them again.
What I’m Doing With My Money Now (Part Three) July 11, 2018 - I’m going to do what I’ve done for more than 30 years - sell off my lower-quality real estate and art... and invest in higher-quality stuff when my rules allow me to.
What I’m Doing With My Money Now (Part Two) June 27, 2018 - If, like me, your fear of losing money is greater than your greed - and you liked my rules for investing - then you may want to consider the following...
